The easily accessible digital libraries, the libraries of today are gaining popularity across the globe. The digital libraries are storehouses of data collected and stored in the digital formats in the computer. Any person residing anywhere around the world can have access to these libraries according to his/her will. The NSF/DARPA/NASA Digital Libraries Initiative popularized the term digital libraries in 1994. Since the contents are stored locally or can be accessed remotely through the computer networks, digital libraries have been given the names of electronic library or virtual library.
Digital libraries necessarily mean an online collection of data or information that is managed and made accessible to a community of users.
There is a distinction between those materials that are created exclusively for the digital medium from those which have been converted from any physical medium by digitizing. In today’s world it is very difficult for an individual to take out time from the busy schedule exclusively for going to the library everyday. So the digital libraries are excellent tools that serve the purpose and at the same time illuminate one on the subject he or she chooses to know.
A Digital library is devoid of physical boundary as the physical presence of an individual is not required; it is available round the clock; it is systematic and structured; any number of copies of the same material can be made without any degradation of the material; there is no limitation in terms of space; it has efficient networking and most importantly, it is cost effective. Some digital libraries create special pages or site maps to enable the search engines to find all their resources. Thus, digital libraries are instruments which quench the thirst of millions of readers across the globe.
